I couldn’t agree more with this. But I will say that the cost factor isn’t as important as one might think. When you can nail the other things down pretty solid, they will more than prove the cost. People understand the “you get what you pay for” to an extent. Obviously overcharging is easy to detect but the mindsets of many is what it can solve for them. If they can answer that through your product, the costs will justify in the end most of the time. Keyword: most of the time.

I agree with you. Usually, when your users are thinking that your product is too expensive, it is because they don’t perceive the value you provide for them. There are three root causes to that:
– you don’t communicate clearly your value,
– you communicate your value to the wrong crowd,
– the problem you solve with your product is not important enough.

I propose a new category around market saturation and reputation.
If the product you introduce appears to have already had its need filled by other products with market share and hence with an established customer base, the unique selling point of your product is lost in the noise of the competition.
This nicely leads to another problem which is related to the “they don’t know that you exist”, “they don’t recognise you as a reputational force in the market”.
e.g. nobody got fired for buying IBM.
In the Internet age, without Hype most tech startups would never get off the ground because they are not taken seriously.
In summary I think a new category is required because it is not a level playing field out there.

Very interesting point. I think that I should add another category: “they don’t see why they should buy your product rather than a competing product”. It deals with differentiation and having a clear and compelling Unique Selling Proposition.
For everything related to reputation or branding, I would put this point under “they don’t believe your solution will solve their problem,”. It asks questions about how you build trust.
I think I should refine this list and try to breakdown every item into sub-categories

Another way is to take the opposite perspective and ask the question: why you don’t succeed in selling your product? In my opinion, there are only three reasons you can lose a business opportunity:

1. Opportunity is not qualified: this touches several of the bullet points you’re listing (e.g. the customer is looking for something different, or cannot afford it, etc) but also other things like your inability to support the require sales process. Qualification is critical for a startup. It’s tempting to jump at the first opportunity and do whatever the customer wants, but this is typically a receipt for disaster.

2. Opportunity is “gone”: things change. from the first time you start talking to a customer, anything can happen: reorganization, change of strategy, project re-prioritization, budget cuts, etc. Time is key. When you have identified and qualified an opportunity, close it as quickly as possible, before something wrong happens.

3. Opportunity is “lost”: that’s where competition kicks in. Anywhere there is a real business opportunity, there is a competitor. The competitor is not necessarily an alternative product. The competitor can be other people in the company who don’t want the project to happen, or people who want to build their own product rather than buying one, or a consulting firm that will offer a different solution, etc. “Know the enemy”.

Entrepreneurs need to start selling very early for many reasons. That requires understanding the market but also the basics of sales. As you go to market and win & lose opportunities, take a bit of time to keep track of where you failed and why you failed. There’s always something to learn from it about your business.

I have completed the post after reading your comments. Building a repeatable sales process is, especially in a startup, as important and as hard as building the product.

I think that I will have to make a version 2.0 of that post sooner or later.

Thanks a lot for your comment.

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Hi, my name is Sébastien Gignoux. Even with all the knowledge available to help first time entrepreneur, many will fail for what seems to be the same basic reasons. I created this blog to help me explore ways to transform ideas into successful startups.